Taste of Cherries
by The Weapon Master
Summary: What would Nojiko do to save a man that could possibly save her island? Not really romance.


Yo.

I'm WeaponMaster94, and this is my first entry on this site. I've got something big planned, and this ones kinda to test out the waters and get a feel for how this whole things gonna work.

That being said this is gonna be a one shot between Luffy and Nojiko. This is not so much romance (I don't support the pairing) as some kind of random crap I had in mind while watching One Piece. You probably won't find this all that funny, despite the fact that it's in humor. This will be slightly changed from the original ep, with Nojiko holding Luffy's head when he recovers from being tossed in the water.

The premise is this: just what would Nojiko do to ensure the recovery of a man that could possibly save her village.

Taste of Cherries

A girl with light lavender-blue hair looked down at the face of the man whose head she was currently holding above the water. Most people would probably have tried to bring the person's whole body up so they could take the appropriate steps to help them. However, since said man's feet were at that point impaled in a piece of rock on the floor below the water, and due to the mysterious stretchy nature of his entire body, including his neck, this seemed to be the better option.

Nojiko, as the girl was called by anyone who knew her, breathed heavily in a mixture of both disbelief and exhaustion at the recent run of events that had engulfed their island. This man – Luffy, if she remembered his name correctly -, had literally shown up out of nowhere, chasing after their sister with the simple premise of getting her sister, Nami, to join his **pirate** crew as their navigator. This had proved difficult for him, as Nami had constantly rejected his offer, insisting that she was already a part of Arlong the Fish-man's crew. Nojiko however knew of Nami's desire to be free of Arlong, and her secret wish that she would be welcomed back into the crew with open arms. She knew how painful it was for Nami to simply have to look at the person who had killed their foster mother eight years prior, much less have to work for them.

Nojiko was disgusted when she had heard that Arlong had broken his promise to Nami, taking the money she had scraped together over eight years to buy the freedom of both herself and their village of Cocoyashi. The villagers, herself included, had advanced on Arlong's base of Arlong Park, only to be stopped and replaced by Luffy and his small crew of three others. She was skeptical at first, of both their reasons and their strength, but after seeing what they could do, she was amazed that her sister had been able to find such powerful people to call her their friend. She did not hesitate therefore, to volunteer to help save the boy from a watery grave after being tossed into the sea by Arlong.

So here she was. Both her and Genzo, who had also decided to come to the boy's aid, had been unsuccessful in breaking the stone that kept him weighted to the bottom of the sea. They decided then that they would take turns, with one of them attempting to force the water out of his lungs, and the other holding his head above the water. She had offered to begin the process of pushing repeatedly on his chest, hoping to get him to spit out the water he had already swallowed. She had switched with Genzo when her lungs had begun to burn for oxygen. She sat upon the stone, trying to catch her breath and watching his face for any signs of life. She had already been shocked by the actions of both the swordsman and the man in the suit in their defeat of Arlong's officers, but she sensed that for Arlong to be defeated, this boy would have to be revived.

He was still far too pale, and she didn't have to be a doctor to know that this was not a good sign. She remembered what the doctor had taught her about CPR and forcing breath into the lungs, but she wondered if that would even help the process with his neck stretched as far as it was. Even more than that, the thought embarrassed her of all but making out with a total stranger. She realized that she did not have many options though, and quickly moved to the side of his head, taking care to hold tight and keep it from springing back into the ocean. She closed her eyes and tried not to think of what she was about to do. She took several small breaths, then a larger one as she swiftly moved her head down and clamped her mouth over his lips, breathing out as she did so. She then raised her head up, opening her eyes as she did. She waited a few seconds, and when she noticed no change, she repeated her action. This continued for a while, until she heard shouts of pain from behind her, and ceased what she was doing to turn around. She gasped when she saw Arlong standing over the two other men who had attacked Arlong Park, both of them writhing in pain upon the ground. She grew frustrated then, and was about to continue what she was doing when she felt the boy's head move. She looked down to see his cheeks swell, followed by him spewing a massive amount of water into the air.

When he finished, he began breathing hard, trying to replace the recently displaced water in his lungs with air. His breathing slowed and he noticed Nojiko for the first time. His head cocked slightly in her hands, before he seemed to recognize her.

"Oh yeah, your Nami's sister."

His simple statement caught her off guard for a second before she smiled slightly and nodded her head.

"Yeah, good to see you remember me", she replied with a small laugh.

She then remembered the problem at hand and grew serious.

"Hey, do you think you can pull your feet out of that rock? Arlong is causing trouble for your friends and you're probably the only one that can take care of him."

He cocked his head again, and then seemed to be straining, if the look on his face was any indication.

"It's no good, I don't think I can even move", came his disappointed answer.

Nojiko closed her eyes and sighed. "Well I guess we'll have to wait for your friends to do something".

Luffy nodded, then stopped suddenly. Nojiko cocked an eyebrow as if asking a question, her eyes then widening and her face paling as Luffy licked his lips.

Luffy seemed confused for a second, apparently embroiled in some deep thought considering the focused look on his face.

He then turned to Nojiko and asked with a straight face, "Hey, do you know why my lips taste like cherries?"

Nojiko began stuttering, her face taking on a furious blush, drawing a confused look from Luffy as she attempted to come up with an answer to his question.

She was saved from her embarrassing position as both she and Luffy were distracted by a deep rumbling. Luffy immediately began shouting out, "My body! Here comes my body!"

Nojiko didn't respond as she grit her teeth and held on to his head with all her might.

His body did indeed come flying out of the water, forcing Nojiko to let go as Luffy sailed high into the sky.

She heard him shout high above her, "**I'M BACK**!", announcing to the entire crowd of people present that he was ready to return to the fight.

Nojiko smiled from her place on the ground flat on her back.

"Go get 'em, kid" she whispered to herself.

She was then left to her own thoughts as she continually cursed her choice of chapstick flavors.

Well, that was a little longer than I planned O_o' I had trouble stopping once I got started. Rate and review, please. Tell me if you liked it, loved it, thought it was okay, or even if you couldn't stand it. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.


End file.
